It says much about the enduring affection and reverence for the hugely influential Kraftwerk that this opening concert was one of the most eagerly anticipated events of the Manchester International Festival. This year's ambitious programme features a diverse and groundbreaking selection of artists but few could match the promised synchronicity of these German electronic pioneers and cycling enthusiasts at Manchester Velodrome on the eve of the Tour de France.

Alex Poots, the festival director, has been trying to book Kraftwerk for about 10 years - long before he was at MIF - but when he offered them the chance to play at the home of the all-conquering British cycling team they agreed within a week. The band's cycling connection runs much deeper than the obvious Tour de France association. They have been two-wheel fanatics since Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider, took up cycling around the time of The Man-Machine in the late 70s, and at one time they would get their tour bus to drop them off 100 miles from the next city, and cycle the rest of way.

Kraftwerk may be the headline act tonight but the festival's raison d'etre is to promote and commission original and new work, which tonight is provided by the minimalist composer Steve Reich. 2x5 is his first new work since 2007, performed by long-time collaborators New York's Bang on a Can over a tape loop. Unfortunately, only two-thirds of the audience are in the Velodrome by the time they take to the stage, and it seems like half of them are in a queue for a bar that snakes across the floor of the venue. It's also not nearly loud enough, which means the subtleties of Reich's minimalism are lost, particularly to those of us seated on what increasingly feels, during the 20 minutes of the piece, like the wrong side of the track.

Ralf Hütter, at 62, is now the only surviving member of the original Kraftwerk line-up, after Florian Schneider left at the start of the year. The cycling fascination, however, remains.

"Cycling is the man-machine," exp-lained Hütter last month. "It's about dynamics, always continuing straight ahead - forwards, no stopping. There are really balanced artists who can remain upright at a standstill, but I can't do that. It's always forwards. He who stops falls over."

So it's only appropriate that they open tonight with "The Man-Machine", four figures silhouetted against a stark red and black constructivist backdrop. The fact that Hütter is the only original member actually matters little, and indeed in some ways it seems somehow oddly befitting and inimitably Kraftwerkian that the others can be replaced by cogs in the Man-Machine.

Whereas the Velodrome seemed to hamper Reich's 2x5, with the cycle track distancing the audience from the band like an athletics track can do at some football stadiums, for Kraftwerk it suddenly, inevitably, makes perfect sense - helped no little by a significant and much needed increase in volume. It's an uncomfortably muggy evening but the band's glacial synths seem to cut through the stifling atmosphere. Kraftwerk playing the Velodrome was always going to be an event but those hoping for an iconic moment are rewarded when they drop into the opening sequence of Tour de France and Jason Kenny's GB cycling team suddenly appear from behind the stage, whirring round the track during an elongated version, to rapturous applause. Hütter is not one for small talk but introduces the team, pauses, then adds with an arch Germanic emphasis "and their German coach, of course".

This is basically a greatest-hits set, including a euphoric "Autobahn", played out in front of a backdrop of animations of the car's golden age, a more sobering "Radioactivity", and "Computer Love", which although written in the pre-internet days of the ZX Spectrum sounds eerily prophetic rather than dated.

They even manage to pull off an inventive closing 3D section, where we all don 3D Kraftwerk glasses, without it feeling like a dated clip from Tomorrow's World.

Last weekend at Glastonbury the old guard very much felt like heritage rock, a retreat to safety. Kraftwerk, conversely, still sound as fresh, innovative and invigorating as they ever did, and a fitting opening to what promises to be a memorable festival.